The painting was created on a journey to the West Indies, which were still a Danish colony in 1914. In Holm’s painting the black woman is put on a par with exotic flowers and fruits as a proponent of an exotic otherness that fascinated several avant-garde artists of the day such as Jais Nielsen, and, in France, Picasso, and Matisse. Astrid Holm is among the few female artists to make a mark for herself within the Danish art scene of 1900-20.
She lived in Paris in 1910-14, exhibited her work at the progressive salons, and moved among the Scandinavian art set and the French avant-garde. Among the Danish artists of her generation she was closely linked to Jais Nielsen, exhibiting with him in 1915. Being a woman, Holm was barred from the most powerful associations of the era, and around 1920 she abandoned her career as a painter.
